“There will be stars over the place forever; Though the house we loved and the street we loved are lost, Every time the earth circles her orbit On the night the autumn equinox is crossed, Two stars we knew, poised on the peak of midnight Will reach their zenith; stillness will be deep; There will … More There will be Stars

“Everyone has his dream; I would like to live till dawn, but I know I have less than three hours left. It will be night, but no matter. Dying is simple. It does not take daylight. So be it: I will die by starlight” Victor Hugo

“Look deeper through the telescope and do not be afraid when the stars collide towards the darkness, because sometimes the most beautiful things begin in chaos.” Robert M. Drake Tarantula Nebula NGC 2070

‘At least for a while,’ said Elrond. ‘The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the … More Searching for Heaven

All this world is heavy with the promise of greater things, and a day will come, one days in the unending succession of days, when beings, beings who are now latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins, shall stand upon this Earth as one stands upon a footstool and laugh and reach out … More A Day will Come

“On this shore, we’ve learned most of what we know. Recently, we’ve waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star stuff. … More Starship Earth

“Veil after veil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern.” Oscar Wilde – The Picture of Dorian Gray

“I saw the first light, fore-running the sun, gather in a cup of the eastern cloud, gather and grow and brim, till at last it spilled like milk over the golden lip, to smear the dark face of heaven from end to end. From east to north, and back to south again, the clouds slackened, … More The Gates of Day

Beechworth Lunatic Asylum, originally known as the haunted Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum is a decommissioned hospital located in Beechworth, a town of Victoria, Australia. Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum was the fourth such Hospital to be built in Victoria, being one of the three largest. Mayday Hills Hospital closed in 1995 after 128 years of operation. … More Nightfall at the Asylum

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” Albert Einstein

“I have been feeling very clearheaded lately and what I want to write about today is the sea. It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green at noon, dark blue in the evening. Sometimes it looks almost red. Or it will turn the color of old coins. Right now the shadows of clouds are … More Clouded Twilight

“One can follow the sun, of course, but I have always thought that it is best to know some winter, too, so that the summer, when it arrives, is the more gratefully received.” Beatriz Williams – Along the Infinite Sea Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, Alberta Canada – Winter 2011

“Summer was here again. Summer, summer, summer. I loved and hated summers. Summers had a logic all their own and they always brought something out in me. Summer was supposed to be about freedom and youth and no school and possibilities and adventure and exploration. Summer was a book of hope. That’s why I loved … More Summer

“We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.” Anton Chekhov (1860 – 1904), 1897 Waiting to view the Geminids at 3am on Nelson Beach, Jervis Bay …. The sea mist and clouds remained with no comet dust, but there was compensation.

“Turn your face away from the garish light of day, turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light, and listen to the music of the night… Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams, purge your thoughts of the life you knew before. Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar, and live, … More Into the Night

“One summer night, out on a flat headland, all but surrounded by the waters of the bay, the horizons were remote and distant rims on the edge of space. Millions of stars blazed in darkness, and on the far shore a few lights burned in cottages. Otherwise there was no reminder of human life …… … More Night Shores – Moonglow

“Even these stars, which seem so numerous, are, as sand, as dust, or less than dust, in the enormity of the space in which there is nothing. Nothing! We are not without empathetic terror when we open Pascal’s Pensées and read, ‘I am the great silent spaces between worlds.” Carl Sagan Inspired by WordPress Photo … More The Ornate Serenity of Stars

“Regular maps have few surprises: their contour lines reveal where the Andes are, and are reasonably clear. More precious, though, are the unpublished maps we make ourselves, of our city, our place, our daily world, our life; those maps of our private world we use every day; here I was happy, in that place I … More There are Places …

“If we can establish a Mars colony, we can almost certainly colonise the whole Solar System, because we’ll have created a strong economic forcing function for the improvement of space travel. We’ll go to the moons of Jupiter, at least some of the outer ones for sure, and probably Titan on Saturn, and the asteroids. … More The Shores of Imagination

“Not just beautiful, though … the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they’re watching me.” Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore Inspired by WordPress Photo Challenge …. Monochromatic Greenfields Beach, Jervis Bay NSW

“Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day. But when I follow at my pleasure the serried multitude of the stars in their circular course, my feet no longer touch the earth.” ― Ptolemy A 180 Panorama from Nelson Beach, Jervis Bay NSW – At left is the Point Perpendicular … More Nightscape – Nelson Beach

Orion is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous and recognizable constellations in the night sky, and was named after Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology. Orion has two first magnitude stars. Betelgeuse is in the left shoulder and Rigel in Orion’s … More Mythology – The Sword of Orion

Standing alone on an ink black beach before moonrise … surrounded by the universe. The unseen ocean lapping the cold shore, and the rhythmic flashing of a lighthouse marking the passage of time. “We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We … More View from the Shores of Eternity

Bridge to the Stars – The Milky Way rises out of the South before dawn on Anzac Day 2015. Imaged at the abandoned Dundullimal Railway Bridge, Macquarie River, Dubbo. Decided this post might also be a left field candidate for WordPress Photo Challenge – Motion “Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the … More Next Stop Omega Centauri …

The Milky Way floats above a pre-dawn cloudy sky in Central West NSW. Inspired by WordPress Photo Challenge – Afloat The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And … More Floating like dust in the morning sky

Inspired by WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge … Ephemeral There are singular momentous events in the life of the universe – of star-birth and death, of colliding galaxies, massive firestorms of light that once or twice in a century illuminate the sky with fire and wonder … but the light is ephemeral. It often comes to … More The Ephemeral Light of Stars

The Great Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), is the most famous star-forming region of the southern sky, spanning more than 100 light-years and is visible to the naked eye as a glowing patch in the Milky Way. The Nebula plays home for thousands of stars similar in mass to the sun and 70 O-type stars, which are stars … More Carina – Birthplace of Giants

“Every human generation has asked about the origin and fate of the cosmos. Ours is the first generation with a real chance of finding some of the answers. One way or another, we are poised at the edge of forever.” Carl Sagan Imaged at the abandoned Dubbo to Molong railway bridge on the Macquarie River, … More Bridge at the Edge of Forever

A quiet hour beside the Mitchell Highway west of Bathurst this morning at 4am … Some cloud around and occasional light from approaching trucks Canon 7D Rokinon 14mm @ f/2.8 ISO 1600 Exp 25 sec “Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too … More Watching Stars at Dawn

“The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last … More Ultimate Scale

The Flame Nebula NGC 2024 is a beautiful emission nebula in the Constellation Orion. A broad dust lane nearly bisects the nebula, and a secondary dark lane runs from near the south end of the main rift into the eastern wing. At least a dozen stars of magnitude 10 to 12 are embedded in the … More The Fires of Alnitak

Ailsa’s Photography Travel Theme this week is Belonging …. Society, as we have constituted it, will have no place for me, has none to offer; but Nature, whose sweet rains fall on unjust and just alike, will have clefts in the rocks where I may hide, and secret valleys in whose silence I … More Belonging to the Wild Places

The Brewongle Road turns to dirt a few minutes from the Great Western Highway east of Bathurst, and you are suddenly alone. In the far distance are red and white car lights, the tall grass beside the road rustles in a slight breeze, hidden cows settle down in darkened fields and the city … More Road to the Stars

Went into the hills yesterday at 4.30am to try and catch the Orionid Meteors …. But despite seeing a few with my eyes while setting up the gear, didn’t capture anything on camera. However, the approaching Dawn, the Milky Way arching overhead and a thin crescent moon rising over Stewart’s Mount – coupled with the … More Dawn over Dunkeld – Waiting for Meteors

From where I am staying at Waikaloa Beach on the Big Island of Hawai’i, you look across 30 miles of desolate volcanic terrain to Mauna Kea. At sunset from here on the coast … above the perpetual cloud layer that wreathes the summit, the domes of the Subaru and Keck 1&2 Telescopes can be seen … More Mauna Kea

Come a little bit closerHear what I have to sayJust like children sleepin'We could dream this night away But there's a full moon risin'Let's go dancin' in the lightWe know where the music's playin'Let's go out and feel the night Because I'm still in love with youI wanna see you dance againBecause I'm still in … More Harvest Moon